6th European Conference - Academic Conferences

Edwin Leigh Armistead and Thomas Murphy
these elements of strategic communication can be on levels at, above or below the USG
enterprise level. They could involve higher-level international strategic goals and the implied
communication. Alternatively, they could consider objectives and themes in lower level
operational organizations to be coordinated with and communicated by various communication,
information, and influence assets.
Communication, information, and influence capabilities are broadcast, dissemination, and
engagement elements of SC. Communication, information, and influence capabilities include
public affairs, perception management, psychological operations (PSYOP now MISO), defense
support to public diplomacy (DoD to DoS), and civil affairs. These capabilities are thus very broad.
They can be combined with elements of force, such as maneuver conducting civil-military
operations or military police. They might include the interactions of any element of the USG
military, diplomatic or other forces with foreign populations or the prevalence of language and
cultural awareness training across the force. They might include any action or comment by every
deployed diplomatic or military service member.
Knowledge of human dynamics and analysis or assessment capabilities are the fundamental
bases for all the preceding specified activities. In contrast to processes, knowledge, analysis and
assessment are the bases of accurate models for planning effective, efficient, and successful
actions. Knowledge is obtained via media monitoring, media use pattern research, target
audience analysis, and social, historical, cultural, and language expertise, along with other
relevant analytic and assessment capabilities. “Cultural knowledge and audience analysis are
critical for translating broad strategic goals into information and influence goals. Understanding
audiences specifically and human dynamics generally is critical to identifying themes, messages,
and engagement approaches that will lead to desired outcomes. Data collection and assessment
contribute the feedback that allows two-way communication and engagement (rather than just
broadcast) and that also makes it possible to demonstrate and report impact or effect from
communication activities.” (Paul, 2010)
Thus, the academic researcher could contribute SC applications of Business Marketing, Psychology,
Narratives, Political Science, Economics, and many other disciplines.
5. Future areas of research
Several assumptions must be made when determining IA/ IO needs over the next five years. The first
is that the U.S. economy will continue to rebound from the great recession. The second is that the
U.S. will fund continuing IA efforts in the Federal budget. The third assumption is that information
operations will continue to a growth market, thus the continuing need to bolster IA needs,
requirements and solutions. Continued introduction of unique discriminating Security offerings, such
as an integrated set of IO services, will be vital to keeping revenue up in the contracted companies. IA
services price elasticity is based on the demand from the customer base and costs for having
qualified, trained and certified personnel. These personnel allow the contract team to reach critical
mass in Knowledge Management, create a good reputation, and built consistent security teams to
provide IA functions to customers. Given these assumptions, the customer base will remain high and
that their IA needs and requirements, as well as their budgets, will continue to grow. Acquiring and
maintaining personnel to support IA/IO contract teams will continue to be a challenge to employers
and an opportunity for academics.
How will current capabilities and technologies develop and evolve over the next five years? We can
expect the introduction of a host of new technologies presenting opportunities for IT security vendors.
Many of these will be wireless devices, particularly nomadic devices for home and business users.
The expectation is the continued increased blending of technologies, such as is just beginning to
occur in Internet and cable TV technologies. Increasingly, users of computing devices will have
access to a combination of web-based technologies, including traditional HTTP/IP communications,
streaming video, voice over IP (VOIP), global positioning systems and database applications. Users
will be able to seamlessly move between these technologies via increasingly sophisticated user
interfaces and input/output devices. The blending of technologies, along with increased use of
service-oriented architecture (SOA), will increase the need for multi-level and cross-domain security
capabilities. Cross-domain security requirements will increase significantly, as the ability to share data
across SOAs will increase the need for securing privacy and classified data extracted from databases
for use in other applications. Likewise, the DoD trend towards employing SOAs to support net centric
operations will make C&A increasingly difficult. Biometric identification and access control
technologies will be a growth industry, particularly in the area of identity verification technologies for
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